


The start of a beautiful friendship

by mseg_21



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: 8-year-old Eddie Kaspbrak, 8-year-old Richie Tozier, First Meeting, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 12:04:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14308251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mseg_21/pseuds/mseg_21
Summary: When little eight-year-old Eddie Kaspbrak helps a crying eight-year-old Richie Tozier, a beautiful friendship is formed.





	The start of a beautiful friendship

**Author's Note:**

> Just a small oneshot of what I imagine Eddie and Richie’s first meeting as 8-year-old kids was like. I finished and posted it in celebration of me reaching 400 followers on tumblr! Enjoy this fluff ♥

The school yard was filled with the sound of children running around, playing with each other and enjoying their recess. Little eight-year-old Eddie Kaspbrak was also playing, only he did it quietly and all by himself. He was throwing a rubber ball against the side of the school building and catching it when it bounced back.

He could see most of the kids from his class playing a game of tag. It didn’t come as a surprise to him that he hadn’t been invited to join them, no one wanted the asthmatic boy playing with them, they didn’t want to risk Eddie having an attack in the middle of the game and ruining all of their fun. Or at least, that’s what they told him the one and only time he had asked if he could play. It didn’t make him feel sad, only angry, especially because he really liked running and because he knew that, asthmatic or not, he was the fastest out of all the kids in his class.

That day, he had gone home and told his mother what had happened. Instead of trying to make him feel better, she had sat Eddie down and explained all the ways he could get hurt while playing a simple game of tag and how, even if the kids asked him to play, he should say no. And Eddie would have, if given the chance. He didn’t want to fall and break his arm, or give himself a concussion by hitting his head against the playground bars or scratch his leg on the dirt and get an infection. But more than that, he didn’t want to risk being dragged to the hospital and being stuck there, getting x-rayed for an entire week, which is exactly what his mother would do if Eddie so much as got a nosebleed.

Truth be told, Eddie stopped caring about not being invited to play with the other kids when he met his best friend, Bill Denbrough. Bill didn’t care that Eddie had asthma or allergies or the fact that whenever the alarm on his clock went off he had to stop playing to take the vitamins and nutritional supplements he carried around, just like he didn’t care about Bill’s stutter or how impulsive he could be sometimes, something that had gotten them in trouble with the bigger kids more than once.

They had fun together, Bill and Eddie. They would play catch, use Bill’s chalks to draw on the basketball court or read comic books together. Ever since he had met Bill a year ago, Eddie hadn’t spent a recess alone and with no one the play with, until today.  

Today, Eddie was stuck playing on his own because Bill hadn’t shown up to school. According to their teacher, he would most likely be staying home for an entire week since he had chickenpox. Eddie knew what that was and he knew it was highly contagious, so he understood why Bill had to stay home, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it and about the fact that for an entire week he wouldn’t have anyone to spend recess with.

Eddie had been so caught up in his thoughts, that he didn’t notice a group of kids running towards him. They were escaping from whoever was ‘it’ and kept turning their heads around to make sure they weren’t about to be tagged, so they didn’t notice Eddie either, until they ran past him.

One of the kids collided against Eddie and sent him sprawling to the ground.

“Out of the way, Wheezy!” The kid yelled to Eddie.

Eddie glared at him as he ran away. He stood up, and checked himself over for cuts or scratches. Luckily there were none. He looked around for his ball, which he had dropped when the kid pushed him over.

The ball had bounced away and stopped just around the corner of the school building. Eddie sighed and went to pick it up.

Once the ball was back in his hands, he turned around but before he could start walking towards the spot where he had been playing, he heard a noise that stopped him in his tracks.

It was the sound of sobbing and shuddering breaths.

Curious, Eddie started to look for the source of those sounds. It was when he walked past some recycling bins that he found it. Curled up on the floor next to them was a kid, his face was tucked between his bent knees and his entire body was shaking from the strength of his sobs.

Eddie knelt down in front of the boy and awkwardly tapped his knee.

“Uh, are you okay?” Eddie asked.

The boy lift up his head and squinted at Eddie with red-rimmed eyes. Eddie was able to recognize him then, his name was Richie ’something’, the loud and misbehaved kid from his class. Some of the other kids called him ‘Bucky Beaver’ because of his huge front buck teeth, just like they called Eddie ‘Wheezy’ due to his asthma.

He usually wore thick black glasses that made his eyes look comically wide but he wasn’t wearing them right now.

Richie sniffled and used his hands to wipe the tears from his face, then, with his voice hoarse from crying, he said, “I’m fine.”

Eddie pursed his lips, “You don’t look fine. Why are you crying?”

“It’s none of your business.” Richie snapped.

Eddie huffed. “Fine. If you’re going to be mean, I’ll leave you alone.” He said, standing up.

He was walking away when Richie spoke again, this time in a softer tone.

“No, wait! I’m sorry. I, uh, didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“Okay.” Eddie said, kneeling down in front of him again. When Richie didn’t say anything and just stared at Eddie, blinking repeatedly, he asked, “Where are your glasses?”

Richie, who had stopped crying when Eddie talked to him, let out a shuddering breath and tears started to well up in his eyes again.

Eddie panicked and scooted closer to him so that he could place a hesitant hand on Richie’s arm, trying to comfort him. “Hey it’s okay. Please don’t cry.”

But as much as Richie tried to listen to him, it wasn’t long before he was sobbing again. Eddie kept his hand on the boy’s arm, unsure of what else to do. He wanted to help but if he didn’t know the reason why Richie was crying, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

Between sobs, Richie finally answered Eddie’s question, “My glasses. They’re broken.” 

“Did you break them?” Eddie asked.

Richie shook his head, “Henry Bowers did it. I laughed when he fell from the monkey bars. He and his stupid friends chased me around the playground,” Richie whimpered, “and when he caught me, he grabbed my glasses and snapped them in the middle. He said that way maybe I wouldn’t see things I wasn’t meant to see.” He said,  sniffling.   

Eddie felt sorry for Richie, he hadn’t done anything wrong. If Eddie had been there, he probably would have laughed at Henry Bowers too.

“Hey, it’s okay. Henry Bowers is a dweeb.” Eddie said, making Richie snort. “But you shouldn’t cry about your glasses. I’m sure your parents can get them fixed.”

Richie frowned, “I can’t tell my parents.”

“Why not?”

“They will get mad and yell at me.”

“But it wasn’t your fault! You can tell them it was Bowers who did it.”

“It won’t matter. They’re always saying I need to be more careful and to stop looking for trouble.” Eddie could see Richie’s lower lip trembling, he was trying hard not to burst into tears again.

“Okay then maybe we can fix them ourselves.” Eddie said, trying to make Richie feel better.

Richie looked at Eddie with a hopeful expression on his face. “Really?”

“We can try. Can I see them?”

Richie nodded. He reached into his pocket and took the two halves out, handing them to Eddie. The bridge of the glasses was split in two, just like Richie had said. He lined up the two halves and let out a sigh of relief when they fit perfectly, no gaps or anything.

“Can we fix them?” Richie asked.

Eddie nodded, then realized he didn’t know how well Richie could see without his glasses and said, “Yeah, I think so. Here, hold them.”

Once Richie had grabbed the glasses, his hands went to the fanny pack wrapped around his waist. His mother had gotten it for him so that he could carry his inhaler, his vitamins and supplements as well as emergency items like band aids, rubbing alcohol, adhesive tape, gauze and some antiseptic cream.

Eddie took out the adhesive tape and with his teeth he cut a large piece.

“Hold the two pieces together.” Eddie told the other boy. “Like this.” He grabbed Richie’s hands and placed them like he needed. “Don’t move.”

Carefully, Eddie wrapped the tape tightly around the bridge of the glasses effectively sticking both halves together. He took them from Richie’s hands and bent them lightly, testing the tape resistance, smiling when they didn’t snap.

“Did it work?”

“See for yourself.” Eddie said, handing the glasses over. He noticed they were smudged, probably from both Richie and Bowers touching them. “Wait.” He told Richie, before using the hem of his shirt to clean them. Then he carefully placed them back on the boy’s face.

Richie’s huge eyes blinked at him through the glasses, adjusting to being able to see clearly again.

Eddie pulled his hands away and Richie, upon realizing that the glasses were holding together without help, smiled brightly at the other boy.

“YOWZA! You fixed them!” Richie exclaimed. His eyes were still red and puffy from all the crying and there were tear tracks on his face, but Richie’s expression was one of happiness. It was like now that his glasses were fixed and he knew he wasn’t getting yelled at by his parents, Richie could go back to being the loud, energetic kid Eddie would see running around the schoolyard and being scolded by the teachers for talking in class.

Right now, he was looking at Eddie as if he had built him a pair of glasses from scratch. Shrugging, Eddie said, “Uh, they probably won’t hold forever, you will need to change the tape sometime.”

Richie paid him no mind, “What’s your name? I need to know the name of my hero.”

Eddie snorted, “I’m not a hero.”

“You saved me from my parent’s rage. You _are_ my hero.” Richie said in a serious tone. “What’s your name?”

“Eddie.”

“Well Eddie, I’m Richie.”

“I know.” Eddie said. When Richie frowned, he added, “The teachers are always yelling your name.”

Richie snickered. “Yes, they are. I have never heard them yell yours. I’ve seen you around though, you play with the Denbrough kid, the one with the stutter.”

Eddie nodded, “Bill.”

“Where is he?” Richie asked, looking around as if expecting Bill to pop up from somewhere.

“Home. He’s sick. He has chickenpox.”

“Chickenpox? Is he going to turn into a chicken?” Richie asked with a frown. Then he chuckled, “A chicken with a stutter. I would pay to see that.”

Eddie laughed, “No, silly. Is where you get blisters all over your body and they itch and you can make other people sick by touching them.”

Richie scrunched up his nose, “That’s gross. I would rather turn into a chicken.”

“A chicken with glasses. Now _that_ I would pay to see.” Eddie joked.

“Yowza! Eddie Spaghetti gets off a good one!” Richie laughed.

Eddie frowned, he said, “Don’t call me that.”

But Richie ignored him, “So if Billy boy is sick at home. Who were you playing catch with?” he said, pointing at the ball that was now on the floor next to them.

“Oh.” Embarrassed of the answer, Eddie looked away from Richie, before saying, “Uh, with no one. I was playing alone. Bill is my only friend.”

Instead of making fun of him, Richie beamed, “Not anymore, Eddie Spaghetti. I’m your friend now too. And I will play catch with you.”

“You want to be my friend?”

“Of course! You’re nice, you fixed my glasses and I need you around for when they break again. Also, you’re very cute.”

“I’m what?”

“Cute, cute, cute!” Richie said, pinching one of Eddie’s cheeks.

“Stop!” Eddie said, pushing his hand away, but he was laughing.

“So, what do you say, Eds? Want to be friends?”

Eddie smiled, “Okay.”

“Awesome! We are going to be the best of friends!” Richie exclaimed, grabbing the ball and standing up.

“You can’t be my best friend. Bill is already my best friend.” Eddie said, with a frown.

“You can have more than one best friend, dummy!” Richie told him, offering Eddie his hand and pulling him up when he accepted it.

“You can?”

“Absolutely. I have a best friend too. His name is Stan. But you can be my other best friend!”

“Okay, then you can be my best friend too.” Eddie said with a smile, “Where is Stan?”

“Oh. He is visiting his cousins in Arlington. He will be back next week.”  Richie said. Then he seemed to get an idea, “Hey! When Stan and Bill get back, we can play together! The four of us, it will be fun!”

Eddie nodded. Playing with Bill was great, but the idea of having two new friends to play with excited him.

“Okay, well, recess is almost over. Let’s go play before the teachers start calling us inside.” Richie said, making his way towards the playground, bouncing the ball on the floor. He stopped abruptly and turned to look at Eddie. “I never thanked you for fixing my glasses.”

Eddie smiled brightly at Richie and said, “You don’t have to. After all, that’s what friends do.”

Richie smiled at him. Then he threw the ball at Eddie and took off running. “Last one to get there is a rotten egg, Eds!”

Forgetting about his asthma and any possible injuries, Eddie followed his lead. “I told you not to call me that, Richie!” Eddie yelled.

Richie chuckled, “Try to catch up, Eds! Can’t hear you all the way from there!”

Eddie speed up and once he was close enough, threw the ball at Richie, hitting him on the head. “Hear me now, you dipstick?”

Richie laughed, “Oh, _Eds_ , this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

Then he picked up the ball, and he and Eddie proceeded to play catch until it was time to go back inside.

And as they walked back to their class, Eddie found himself wishing for tomorrow’s recess to come sooner, so that he could spend it with his new best friend.  

**Author's Note:**

> Don’t forget to leave a comment and tell me what you think!!! :)


End file.
